Criminal Minds

We're almost ready for you, Dr. Reid.

Just a few questions.

Are you having one of your headaches right now?

Yeah, I am.

How long have you had it?

Um...Not really that long.

I don't know.

Can you be more specific?

Uh, maybe 2 days.

And the lights hurt your eyes.

Any hallucinations?

No.

Hey, you ok?

Yeah. Why?

You're never late.

Have we started the briefing yet?

Just about to.

Then I'm not late.

Oh. Yeah.

Attention, intrepid BAU adventurers.

The land of Bermuda shorts, white leisure suits,

and sansabelt slacks requests your presence.

- Arizona. - Vegas?

- Please. - Palm Springs.

I was going to say Miami, but point well made

about the dizzying number of locales

with unfortunate fashion tendencies.

Here we go.

Shells in the eyes and mouth.

You don't see that every day.

Not even in Miami.

3 victims, the last one found with a...

A decapitated cat?

All were found within a mile

of each other in a mostly Latino neighborhood in Miami

called Allapattah.

Eduardo Guzman, homeless. He was shot to death 7 days ago.

Yanira Espinal, prostitute,

bludgeoned to death 3 days ago.

And then Victor Cabrera, he was an unemployed janitor.

He was slashed with a machete yesterday,

as was his cat.

You know, considering the homeless man lived in that alley,

all of the victims essentially were killed in their homes.

This took some time.

In the open.

You know, cowrie shells

and ritual offerings are common to a number

of Afro-Caribbean religions.

But the upside-down cross looks like satanism.

The first two victims had fingers missing,

but on this one, he took both hands.

All of this could have been religious?

This could have specific religious meaning

or it could just be part of the unsub's signature.

Either way, his timetable's accelerating.

We have a day, maybe 2, before the Miami P.D.

Has another body on its hands.

? Criminal Minds 6x12 ? Corazon Original Air Date on January 19, 2011

?

"No man chooses evil because it is evil.

He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks."

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

The first victim was frail and an easy target,

and yet the unsub shot him from behind and at a distance.

By the second victim, the unsub chose

not to use a gun anymore.

He got up close and personal.

4 days is a rapid increase in confidence.

By the third victim, he was comfortable enough

to use a machete.

But still from behind.

So he's not invested in watch his victims suffer.

Which fits what the M.E. said

about the mutilations being postmortem.

So we're back around a religious ritual.

Reid?

Hmm?

Anything helpful?

Yeah. Yeah.

Um...

The Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions began

with slaves, who mixed their traditional religions

with Catholicism in order to camouflage them.

The elements in this altar...

Look to me like Santeria.

It's a yoruban-based religion

developed in Cuba. Practitioners

worship orishas, deities that roughly correspond

with Catholic saints.

And what about the shells?

Let's see. This is Ellegua,

the deity of the crossroads,

a trickster and the impartial enforcer of justice.

So, is the unsub sacrificing the victims to him?

None of these religions openly call for human sacrifice,

only animals.

We need to determine whether these killings

are part of an existing ritual.

Or whether he's using religion

to cover his own psychopathology.

The last victim used to frequent a local community center.

It might be a good way to get some background.

Good. Take Reid with you.

Prentiss and I will go to the last crime scene.

Dave and Seaver, get set up with the P.D.

This the line?

Hmm?

Uh, for coffee. Sorry.

Oh, no. No, I'm just thinking.

Aren't you always?

Yeah.

Hey, what's the weather like in Miami right now?

I don't know exactly, but my guess--75 and sunny.

Hey, what's the matter with you?

You're not gonna give me a bunch of facts

about the area and the demographics?

The Allapattah neighborhood is named after

the native American word for alligator.

There you go. There's the kid I know.

All right, 5372 Seminole Street.

This can't be it.

Excuse me, sir. Do you know where

the community center is?

It's down there.

This is Seminole Alley.

Reid, you all right?

Yeah. I'm fine.

A lot better than that goat.

Yeah, you got that right.

You see a lot of animal sacrifices, Detective?

Roosters,

goats, even possums, but, uh,

a cat is new to me.

He turned the victim's crucifix upside down.

Well, he brought the shells and the murder weapon with him.

He must have brought gloves, too.

The only fingerprints they found belonged to the victim.

Older, organized.

Yeah, except he left a footprint.

That's something only an inexperienced unsub would do.

It's almost as though he planned this whole thing very carefully,

but then reality was nothing like his imagination.

That throws him off balance and he makes a mistake.

But he is getting used to it.

Each kill is more precise and well-executed.

The first killing, he had to saw to take the finger off.

He made sure he brought something sharp enough this time.

Right. He knows what he needs to bring with him

and what's already here.

He's been here before.

There's no signs of forced entry.

The victim let him in.

These chalk designs on the floor--

they were made before the blood spatter,

and they're not smudged at all.

And no sign of a struggle.

Maybe the victim chose to be part of the ritual.

After the murder, the unsub turned the victim's body over.

His face was clean, so he wiped the blood off.

Remorse?

Or he feels conflicted about harming the victims.

They may represent somebody to him.

These shells--

they look like "see no evil, speak no evil."

He's symbolically silencing his victims

so they can't tell anyone about him.

By posing the bodies, he is sending a message.

He may not want the victims to see or hear him,

but he wants somebody to.

Victor was my best friend.

We were like brothers.

We're sorry for your loss, Mr. Mercado.

He was sick for a long time,

but he was finally feeling better.

He was sick?

His men's part, down there.

The cancer.

Where was he being treated?

No, no, no. No doctors.

They don't do nothing but make you worse.

Throw radiation on you, poison you.

He did his cleaning every day.

That's why he was feeling better.

What do you mean by cleaning?

He clean his head, his body.

But he got one of the saints mad.

Maybe he forgot to feed Ellegua.

¿Terminaste?

Si.

Tuti.

I must go.

Excuse me.

You run this place?

I don't talk to cops,

unless you got a warrant.

Well, one thing's for sure is this community

does not trust outsiders.

They barely trust insiders.

And none of the residents are gonna want to tell us